VMWare ESXi 4.1 Test Rig - UPDATE

I decided to use a spare 8GB USB pen (check requirements in the installation guide relating to swap space) to install the VMware hypervisor on. This enables me to use the entire size of the internal SATA disks as VMware datastores for hosting guest operating systems. It also means I can create a backup copy of the USB pen when trying out a VMware upgrade.

Once installed, I then downloaded the VMware standalone converter to my laptop.
I had two VirtualBox guest machines on my laptop, so I used the VMware converter to simply pull them off (there is no pun here!) onto the VMware virtual infrastructure.
My LAN is not the fastest so total time to v2v conversion was about 10 hours to do both guest VMs.

The next problem was the Oracle Linux 6.1 install.
This seems to come in two separate parts; the boot ISO and the main DVD ISO.
Downloading the main DVD ISO took about 3 hours over my simple ADSL connection.

Once downloaded, my problems started.
I attached the Oracle Linux 6.1 boot ISO to the virtual CDROM of a new 64bit virtual machine and click "Power On".
Then, bam! No longmode enabled:

What!
Well, it turns out that the history of the Intel XEON processor is a rather tarnished story of rivalry between Intel and AMD.
Although the XEON processor I have *is* 64bit capable, and does support EM64t with Hyperthreading and all that, it just doesn't have the VT (virtualization) capability.
The spec of the XEON processors in the HP XW6200 workstations can be seen on the Intel page here http://ark.intel.com/products/27086/64-bit-Intel-Xeon-Processor-3_40E-GHz-2M-Cache-800-MHz-FSB.

Looking at the Intel page is even more confusing, since it states it doesn't have Hyperthreading, but I have just enabled it in the BIOS. Does it? Doesn't it? Arghh!

In summary, you're better off getting any one of the Core2Duo processors as these will undoubtedly support EM64t and VT.
Only problem is, most don't support 8GB of RAM due to the system board limitations (more than likely a soft limitation). Oh dear indeed.

So my story doesn't end there, I'm now in the process of downloading and installing 32bit Oracle Linux 6.1. Not quite what I wanted, but it will suffice because I have limited memory so will not be needing the use of 64bit memory addressing capabilities - yet.
My other task is to download the 32bit version of the Oracle 11g XE. But wait, Oracle only provide a Linux version of the 11g XE in 64bit mode. Scuppered! I'll have to use the 32bit version for Windows only.

As you can see, we are in this awkward transition period where software is both 32bit and 64bit but hardware is 32bit or 64bit or 64bit with flags.
We are trying our best to virtualise, but for the small guy it's an expensive project.
You either buy a server or you buy the latest and greatest desktops that support more than 4GB of RAM.
It's a very tricky thing to get right.
For me, it's a case of trying to keep skills current. I think I can afford £166 for now, then re-invest another £166 at a later stage to make the jump to a "proper" 64bit (with VT) capable system.

One other thing, once the free version of VMware ESXi expires (you get 60-days free use of all the features), you'll need to spend some time faffing with the license to register it (downgrade to free only features) so you can continue to use it. I did this up-front so I don't have a situation where I can't use the VMs because I forgot the expiry date.
See instructions here: http://planetmediocrity.com/2010/09/vmware-vsphere-evaluation-downgrade/.

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